The entire film unravels in flashback, with an (allegedly) old, bearded Khan – whose birthday obviously coincides with India’s Independence Day – generously narrating his story (and by extension, his career) to multiple generations of his family. He goes from age 8 to 70 in an awkward, episodic narrative that tips its hat to Khan’s transformation from Prem to Chulbul to Tiger to even the sanskaari Barjatya patriarch of the family that Prem once occupied. By being Bharat, he spares no age, genre and location to produce a Greatest Hits medley of his own 30-year-long Bollywood journey. Most actors challenge themselves by revealing different mental dimensions of the same character Khan uses the physical dimension of time to reveal different characters of the same actor. In Bharat, however, the focus is somewhat reversed: We see a story that depicts the journey of an ordinary actor through a young country’s history. You’d imagine a plot that depicts a country’s history through the journey of an ordinary man might be naturally suited to a Bollywood film’s penchant for excesses. The only thing it gets right is the choice of source material: a 2014 South Korean melodrama called Ode to my Father. Or in the way a socially conscious Bharat inspires a trade union to boost the country’s economy by defying foreign investors.įinally, you have a 70-year-old Khan in today’s Bharat customizing Salman Khan’s legacy by defying genetics (a 44-year-old Sonali Kulkarni is 53-year-old Khan’s mother) and physics and logic to athletically beat up goons quarter his age.īut that’s just me willing Bharat to be a clever, self-aware film. You also see shades of this decade’s Akshay Kumar in the way Bharat’s national anthem (or birthday song?) is sung in the most random situation. Finally, you have a 70-year-old Khan in today’s Bharat customizing Salman Khan’s legacy by defying genetics (a 44-year-old Sonali Kulkarni is 53-year-old Khan’s mother) and physics and logic to athletically beat up goons quarter his age. Then you get a 56-year-old Khan in ‘90s Bharat customizing Shah Rukh Khan’s sensitive masculinity as a man unafraid to cry on camera. The 30-year-old Khan simultaneously customizes Rajesh Khanna by romancing his superior, dancing badly and breaking societal barriers by her side. You get a 30-year-old Khan in ‘70s Bharat customizing Amitabh Bachchan’s working-class hero as an oil-rig warrior saving the Middle Eastern day. You have a 24-year old Khan in ‘60s Bharat customizing Raj Kapoor as a daring stuntman in a Russian Circus.
![bharat movie me bharat movie me](https://i.imgur.com/oIQiY7x.jpg)
![bharat movie me bharat movie me](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/65301759/size-117031/65301759.jpg)
A part of me – one that mildly agrees in writer-director Ali Abbas Zafar’s ( Sultan) ability to camouflage his superstar’s image – would like to believe that each of Bharat’s avatars is a Khan-ified homage to the symbolic Hindi movie hero of a particular decade. Forget double roles, you get 6 Salmans for the price of one.
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At least six films spread across seven decades scuffle for space within one 167-minute narrative. Salman Khan fans are spoilt for choice in Bharat. Note: Every time the term “Bharat” is used in this review, even I am not quite sure about whether I’m citing the character, the film or the country.